


You (kiss by the Book)

by meet_the_girl_who_can



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Accidental Kissing, Domestic Fluff, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff without Plot, Found Family, Mild Language, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova is a Little Shit, Not Beta Read, POV Nile Freeman, Post-Canon, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:29:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27265024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meet_the_girl_who_can/pseuds/meet_the_girl_who_can
Summary: By the time Nile realises what just happened, Joe’s already pulled out onto the motorway. She and Booker had kissed.She’d. Kissed. Booker.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre/Nile Freeman
Comments: 40
Kudos: 300





	You (kiss by the Book)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a silly Book of Nile drabble, with found family fluff around it really because I had a bad Tuesday.  
> Title from Romeo and Juliet because I will make as many related puns/ references as I can think of it when it comes to Booker's alias. I hope you like it!!

Immortal or not, Nile has never got the hang of Tuesdays.

In her experience, if something’s going to go wrong, it’ll happen on a Tuesday. Merrick happened on a Tuesday. Case in point, what happened next, happened on a Tuesday. She’s going with Joe and Nicky to the grocery store, like, it’s not even life or death, it happened before they were going to the _grocery store,_ and she’s just promised Quynh more Pop Rocks, but Booker’s got the list by his elbow on the kitchen table, with some very specific computer parts listed that Nicky’s promised they’ll pick up on the way back.

“Is that everything? Cos I need the pen, Quynh wants more candy”

Booker hums in acknowledgement, eyes fixed on the bullet hole-ridden laptop he’s currently dissecting; microchips and tools scattered all over the tabletop, as he slides the list towards her, and ferrets the pen out from where it’s gotten lost amid some wiring. Nile leans on the back of his chair as she adds to the list, rolling her eyes fondly at the nearly illegible chicken scratch of Booker’s handwriting.

“Keep your phone handy, I haven’t covered code breaking in my training yet” she teases, waving his horrendous handwriting at him and its worth it for the smile that breaks across Booker’s face as he prises another component out of the laptop with a pair of tweezers.

“I will” he promises, in that low rasp of his. Which she is absolutely not attracted to. Nope.

“Nile?” Nicky calls from where he’s standing by the door as Joe helps his husband into his jacket. “tesoro, we’re going now”

“’m coming!” she calls back, “Alright, see you later”

“Mmph, bye, cherie. Don’t let Nicky drive” she leans round with a laugh at Nicky’s appalled huff and Joe’s sweet assurances and Booker leans back in his chair, tilts his face towards hers and when she drops a kiss goodbye to his lips, he kisses back, sweet and easy, tasting of coffee and ink. His hand comes up to tilt her chin and improve the angle before they let each other go and he’s turning back to his laptop while she skips out the door.

By the time Nile realises what just happened, Joe’s already pulled out onto the motorway. She’d kissed Booker.

She’d

_Kissed_

**Booker.**

On the mouth. Softly. With her mouth. The way Joe and Nicky or Andy and Quynh, now, too, do all the time. Just, in passing, almost perfunctory. Like it was normal, something they did every time they parted. Except they've never done it before. She hadn’t even thought about it, just caught sight of the soft, full pinkness of that lower lip and wanted a taste of that smile he’d given her before they left.

“I’m going into exile” Nile announces from between her fingertips, burying her burning face in her hands. She’d been doing so _well_ , too, just getting to grips with this new step she and Booker seem to have fallen into. Because, because well he’s been doing so well too – he’s quit drinking since he came back, he’s teaching her French and Quynh all the mod cons and she’s not _blind_ okay, what with those big blue eyes and the way he forgets what a shirt is more often than not, especially since Andy seems to determined that Quynh get as much sun and open sky as possible, they’ve been chasing summer around the world in between jobs. He’s _attractive_ and he’s got this litany of endearments, none of which are ‘kid’ anymore, and _fuck her life_

“Nile-“ Nicky tries softly, but she’s spent long enough with them now to know from his voice, he’s trying not to laugh.

“Ah, penny dropped has it?” Joe chuckles, watching her in the rearview mirror. He takes a hand from the wheel to reach back and squeeze her knee momentarily.

“Someone please kill me”

“You’d just come back again” Nicky reminds her and she takes back every nice thing she’d ever said about him, her new brothers are _assholes._ Nile scrubs a hand over her face, and leans forward, poking her head through the gap, so she’s essentially sitting upfront with them.

“So, exile! What about- Cairo! I’ve always wanted to see the pyramids! Plus if anyone asks for a Nile, y’all are just gonna get pointed to the river. Yup, Cairo. Just drop me somewhere, I’ll call Copley, get a ticket and be gone within the hour”

“You’re not going into exile,” Joe says firmly, pulling into the parking lot of the supermarket. It’s a superstore, nice and big. She could lose them easily. Buy a burner, tell Andy she’ll send a postcard. Maybe the embarrassment will have burned off in a decade or so.

“But-“

“No buts, Nile” Nicky adds. Nile thunks back in her seat, pouting, just a little. Both men undo their seatbelts (unlike Andy they do actually wear them because _of course, we do,_ _you’re **supposed to** Nile_, even though she knows neither of them has taken a driving test since like the twenties) and twist round to smile at her.

“You’re supposed to be the nice ones!” she grouses, panic only growing as they preen at the compliment, and they don’t seem to grasp the gravity of the situation. “I kissed Booker!”

“Y-es” Joe pauses and he and Nicky glance at each other, do that infuriating silent conversation thing that they do, “And, sweetheart, he kissed you back, remember? We were there, we saw”

Oh. Oh, yeah. Her fingertips brush over where Booker’s own had brushed her throat, cupped her jaw as he’d deepened the kiss. Nile presses her fingers to her lips, reliving the way Booker had pressed back into her mouth, his hair falling in his eyes and tickling the bridge of her nose.

Nile smiles at the memory and when she looks back up its to see Joe and Nicky smiling encouragingly back at her.

“Are you okay now, then, dear one?” Nicky asks, watching her intently, those sea-green eyes dancing merrily because he is a _little shit_ once you get to know him.

“Not leaving us for the delights of Cairo?” Joe’s a little shit too. They really are soulmates.

“I—“ Nile swallows, flushing a little. And then, because it's true and she’d been sort of half toying with asking if they could, she says “No. I’d like for us to go altogether if we ever do”

The both of them, murmur a hearty assent and Joe starts opening the door to get out. And they just – don’t mind? That she and Booker might--? She isn’t sure what Booker’s thoughts are, they’re definitely going to have to talk about this when she gets back, but a tender shoot of hope has sprouted in her chest. He’d kissed back.

“One moment, my love”

Nicky’s hand sticks out expectantly towards Joe, who sighs and arches up to pulls his wallet out of his back pocket. “It was foolish of me to hope you might have forgotten, Hayati”

“Another’s sucker’s bet, my heart”

“Well, you’re going to have to pay for the groceries, Nico” Joe pulls out a wad of notes and passes them over, not completely managing to hide his smile. Nicky just smiles in acknowledgement, as if conceding the point.

“What was the bet?” Nile asks, a laugh startling out of her as Nicky pockets the money with a proud smile. “Actually no, d’you know what I don’t wanna know.” She clambers out of the car and goes in search of a cart.

They’re halfway done with the shopping and Nile’s heart rate has gone pretty much back to normal, because this is normal, banal almost. Joe’s just finished tossing about half the confectionary aisle in the cart for Quynh to widen her horizons with, as well as her new favourites (watching immortals discover popping candy had to be about the cutest thing Nile had ever seen) when Nile’s phone starts trilling up a storm.

“Hey, Andy. Was there something you guys wanted that’s not on the list?”

“Well, actually I’d kill for something with cinnamon, kid. But no” there’s a fierce grunt and a loud thud from over the line and Andy laughs triumphantly, before she calls “Just sit on him, Quynh, babe”

Fuck. Nile waves a hand frantically at Joe and Nicky and the two men crowd round her, abandoning the groceries to listen to Andy on the phone. “Um, Boss, everything okay?”

“Yeah, fine. No sweat only – _no knives, you two_ \- Nile, can you do me a favour and hurry up, it’s getting boring having to stop Booker climbing out the window every ten minutes because he’s freaking out that you two kissed. He’s banging on about going back into exile because apparently, he’s still allergic to his feelings - Book, get your **foot** back in this building this instant or I swear –“ the rest is drowned out by another thud and Joe all but crying with laughter at Booker’s choked off groan. Nicky’s shoulders were shaking.

“Put him on the phone” Nile feels a smidge bad about it but giggles at the realisation poor Booker had gone through the same thing she had, except whereas she’d been stuck in a moving vehicle, he’d been trying to sneak out of their current safe house. At least she’d had the sense to ask politely if she could escape, at the height of her own panic.

“It’s for you”

“Hello?” Booker’s voice comes over the line then, and poor man, he does sound winded.

“Hey Book” and Nile’s not thinking about how stupidly soft her voice has gone. 

There’s a rustling, and then “Quynh – please, sister - if you’re going… to sit on me - may I at least have enough breath to answer Nile?”

Quynh harrumphs something about men being babies, but she must oblige because Booker exhales in relief. “Nile, cherie, please let me-“

“If you try and apologise I will definitely authorise Quynh to stop going easy on you” Nile advises him.

“This is why Nile is my favourite” Quynh praises and Nile preens, just a little. She reaches across and snags Quynh another pack of marshmallows from the shelf, just because.

“We kissed. Is that… going to be weird for you?” she asks Booker, sounding braver than she feels. She could fuck off to…Naples or somewhere for a bit if so. Valid excuse and all that.

“No! No, ma tresor! Only, you, you don’t- regret it?”

He’s very sweet, really. “No, I don’t. I’m just glad you don’t either?”

“I don’t, no” he murmurs, voice low and right in her ear and _fuck,_

Nile swallows hard. God, it has been a while since she’s done this, “And, if you’d wait till we get back before reinstating your exile…I could give you a kiss goodbye if you want?”

“Could I, _merde_ , Nile, _amor_ , could I beg a kiss hello instead?”

She laughs gently, eternally kind in more ways than one, and pleased. “You don’t have to beg, Booker!”

Then, low and throaty in a way she doesn’t think has anything to do with Quynh sitting on him “What if I wanted to?”

Warmth zings down Nile’s spine, in response. So that’s how it’s going to be. Well, two can play at that game.

“Promises promises”

Nile vaguely registers the way Nicky’s grinning at her and Joe looks vaguely scandalised by her flirting. “Little sister” he mouths at her and starts laughing when she winks back until Nicky kisses him quiet.

Quynh must have heard that too, because the next thing she hears is Quynh, voice bright and enthused in a way Nile loves, “You could always go into exile together”

Andy snorts, but her voice is soft and encompasses the three of them even though she’s technically speaking to Quynh, “Nobody’s going into exile. Besides, if they’re just off having sex together, babe, that’s just a sexcation”

“Sexcation” Quynh repeated the new word carefully. ”Yes! We did that, that fortnight the boys were in Florence in the 1400s, do you remember? In – it has a new name now doesn’t it, my heart?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Its called Brazil, now”

“I would like to take Nile out for dinner before we even _consider_ –“ Booker tries to interrupt, sounding vaguely scandalised himself, which, given what he’d just alluded to was a strangely sweet turnabout.

“Book – Book!” she has to speak a little loud to be heard, but finally the other three fall silent. “Dinner would be great but can I pick the place?”

“Of course,” Booker says, still sounding winded, like he can’t believe his luck. She wonders if Quynh’s still sitting on him, “Name it, and it's yours. Where would you like to go?”

She pretends to think about it, meets Joe and Nicky’s eyes, and it has been the strangest thing, having the others orbiting this shift between her and Booker, but at the same time, given that just…happened, she’s glad they’ve been here all the same. She sees the moment they guess what she’s going to say, the gentle laugh Joe presses into the back of Nicky’s neck. Maybe that will be her and Booker, one day. Sooner than she thinks. She wonders what the next kiss will taste like, wonders if there’ll be that sweet, slowness to it when they’re not distracted by life. She hopes so.

“Cairo?”

**Author's Note:**

> Brazil was called 'Terra de Santa Cruz' until about 1530 according to a quick wiki search I did
> 
> I'm on tumblr @ meet-the-girl-who-can if you want to come say hi!!


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